A long hot Summer's day

I have a new quilt in progress, slow progress but progress nonetheless. And the best thing about the quilt is that I will be teaching it at the Village Haberdashery next week Saturday the 8th of September.




Those in the know will spot that it is a pineapple quilt pattern. This is one of those patterns that I have had long on my quitting list but resisted for a long time because most of the foundation pieced versions out there are too small and fiddly for my liking. But it's still such an attractive block to make that I decided to make my own pattern to suit my needs and those of my students of course. My version is quite big and just shy of 12 inches square (so you can still print on A3) which makes the whole process easier and more enjoyable.





This quilt is the 2nd in my seasonal quilt series that I started some two years ago with "Spring Greens" . My aim with this little series is to create four distinct quilts each inspired from a season. For me Spring is a riot of greens and Summer has always been yellow in all its glorious shades and that is what I try to show with my "A long hot Summer's day quilt. The pineapples in the quilt are all created from a variety of solid yellows whiles the patterned areas are created from every single yellow piece of fabric I have in my stash. This is by the way an ideal pattern to get rid of stash and offcuts.




If you want to to learn how to foundation piece pineapple pattern quilt blocks then join me for a Saturday worth of quilting and fun at the Village Haberdashery in West Hampstead.

A quilt for Franka

Hello and happy New Year 2018 to everybody. I started the year with a new quilt. My friend and college's daughter hit the big first birthday yesterday and that meant that a quilt had to be created. As everybody knows a baby or toddler needs at least one quilt to cuddle up under or to play with.




So I spend the last two weekends designing, choosing fabric from my stach, assembling, sewing, quilting. And what a joy it was. As you can see my colour theme is centred around the cool tonal range, such as turquoise, blue, grey with a dash of pink thrown in now and then for good measure.



I literally tore through my entire stash to hunt for suitable fabrics and for a while it looked like a bombshell in my studio but that is all part of the fun (though the folding and ordering of said bombshell not so much).



I chose the hourglass pattern intersected with simple squares and I made sure I had a good amount of "I spy" objects to keep the little one interested and entertained.



The finished squares are all 3 1/2 inches and I started the hourglass blogs with 5 1/2  squares to ensure I had enough to square off given that anything sewn on a bias seam is prone to distortion.




I had some of these fabrics for many years now. I remember buying the flipflop fabric when my sister still lived in Bremen and I would take my nephew out in the pram and we would always pop into this  fabric store on the way to the playground. He is now 9 years old and although this is more than 6 years ago he still remembers this.




And come Cotton & Steele cats can't be missed out on the quilt together with the horses and cheeky slogans....




....and dresses and dogs and little windmills and balloons....




The quilt is bound with a teal print that echoes the colours in the quilt and gives it a nice slightly darker frame and in addition works well with the back of the quilt.



The quilt is about 42" by 49" with 84 hourglass blocks and a similar number of simple squares. I can't quite remember the number of different fabrics I used but it is in the same region.

What a great start to the year.

Poppy - the finished quilt

This quilt for my goddaughter Poppy has been finished a while and it makes me and hopefully her very happy. I love the contrast in the colours and the symmetrical pattern with all the small figurative items that will give her plenty to point out.



To make it extra special I fussy cut all the trees and the dancing girls in the middle and corners. All the other gorgeous patterns are randomly cut.



It's fairly densely quilted in a crosshatch pattern every inch.



I quilted in a bright red Gueterman Sulky 28w threat which I absolutely love and it I think it works really well with the back too. This little piggy print has been sitting in my stash for several years now waiting to be used. I have the same in blue too but I guess that has to hang around on the shelf a bit longer.



Isn't it the cutest!



For the binding I used again a text print that allows you to read little wisdom phrases along the edge of the quilt.

                   

Its a funny thing, I really hate seeing wise phrases on Tees or posters but here in the form of quilt binding I actually love it.....maybe because it's not quite so demonstrably in your face.



And the last picture...promise.

Shades of Green - a finished quilt -

A finished quilt.... at last. That did take a while indeed but I am truly happy with the result. So prepare for lots and lots of pictures. My original inspiration for this quilt were Spring greens and it is kinda apt that I have finished it when we are once again moving into Spring.  For all those in London, the quilt is on show at the Village Haberdashery from tomorrow onwards for a while.




The quilt has about 30 different fabrics in various shades of green cut into simple squares and arranged on point in a uniform way. I love that it is riutuos in its colouring but still ordered and organised.




I had some pretty fabric in my stash that lend itself to fussy cutting and these little flowers create a real focal point in the quilt.



To combat all the vertical and diagonal lines I decided to quilt in a concentric circle that I so love and I think this worked out really well. Quilted circles always get me!




It has been quilted densely with barely a half inch between the lines which gives the quilt its typical texture.

I used an off-white Aurifil 40w thread for the quilting rather than a 32w given the quilt is quite densely quilted. But either would have been fine. It's just what I had a hand to be honest. Generally I prefer to quilt with a thicker thread and never quilt with a 50w for example. Though I use 50w or 60w for piecing.





The quilt is 70in x 60in and thus big enough for a good cuddle on the sofa or a double bed indeed. I prefer my bed quilts not to be the entire length of the bed but to just cover 3/4 of it.



The back fabric is a gorgeous and fun print by Riley Blake and I have the same glasses pattern in a deep yellow in stash too for another exciting quilt.



I so enjoyed playing with those greens (and the occasional pink popping up) that I am actually thinking of making 3 more seasonal quilts in this way, one in yellows for the Summer, one in deep reds for the Autumn and one in white/greys for the Winter.



Well, let's see if my enthusiasm will translate into actual quilt making or being hampered by more knitting....



The quilt will also be listed in my Etsy shops in a few days time.

Negative Space - in abundance

 Love Patchwork & Quilting issue 18 is available.

 And with that my third quilt in the all-solids trilogy.

Unlike the previously two (here and here)  this quilt uses a more sedate colour pallet and lots and lots of negative space that I was deliriously happy to quilt.

The purple stripes reflect a basket weave pattern where they intersect.

Although it may look complicated, it is actually a very easy quilt to piece and because of the large amount gives you much space to quilt to your heart's content.

I quilted with about 5 different thread colours ranging from off-white to many shades of purple including a variegated thread and the result is a wonderful diverse yet supple quilting pattern.

Read all about the pattern and the quilting technique in the new magazine. The fabric for this quilt was sponsored by the lovely Tina from Tikki Patchwork in Kew.

Red and White projects

I thought I share a few more of my own photos of the red and white quilt projects with you that I made for issue of 16 of Love Patchwork & Quilting. They feel so christmassy and are just right for now.

The front in all its glory. The continuous circle starts in the middle of this square quilt.

And I couldn't just put on a normal back but had to make something pieced too and as so soften I am tempted to say I like the back even better than the front.

The binding is white and red and adds a little fun to it all.

I also have new labels I now sew into the binding. These are stitched and have writing on both sides.

I love how it folds and drapes.

And a little sausage roll to finish up.

Scrappy Windmills quilt

Issue No 10 of Love Patchwork & Quilting is jam packed with fantastic projects.
One of which is my Windmill quilt that I made a few months back. I can't tell you how much I love this quilt. I used some of my most treasured fabrics and it's a real stash buster as you can use as much as 168 fabrics (if you are so inclined....)

I even found a fabric with the writing 'Windmill' on it......how good is that!

 It's a paper pieced quilt with a detailed how-to tutorial in the magazine.

The mag is again full of great project and two of my favouirtes are  from Lynn who has created a stunning quilt with Oakshot fabric.

 and  from Julianna Gassiorowska  who has created his tape recorder Pillow that is just fabulous and a fun project to make.

Hope Valley - a finished quilt -

After much quilting and wrangling the 80" quilt through my trusted Horizon I finally finished my Hope Valley quilt and I am just as happy with it now, actually more than when I started. So get ready for a picture post of Hope Valley goodness.

Just to recap, the quilt is made using Denyse Schmidt Hope Valley collection and I used the pattern instructions from Faith from her Safari Moon fabric quilt.

 The quilt is 80" square which makes it easily king size. 

After much debating with myself regarding the design for the back I decided on a pieced quilt back which had the advantage that I could use spare squares from the front and I was also keen to emphasis the teal colour that is present in one of the smaller designs. The solid from the back is from Kona Cotton and is called 'Teal Blue'.

I quilted with my preferred stitch length of 4mm and used a 28 w Aurifil thread in a steal grey for the back and off white for the front. The quilting is fairly dense and I used 12 bobbins for it.

This is probably the second largest quilt I have ever made and I just about manged to baste it in my studio and it took forever but as much as I hate basting it needs to be done properly to make quilting a joy. And that it was, although it is even with the longish arm of the Horizon a lot of work and is best done in 1-2 hour sessions. 

Apart from the Kona Cotton on the back I only used Hope Valley in this quilt including the binding. The yello/green tone of the binding frames the grey patterned fabric around the edges wonderfully and also contrasts beautifiully with the teal on the back of the quilt.

I am rather happy that I finally used this precious fabric and the good news is that I still have plenty left for another ! 

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Previous posts incluing measurments and maths can be found here and here

You can find this quilt in my Etsy shop